Drugs are the worst things ever, especially marijuana, cocaine, and tobacco! Marijuana (aka. Pot, Grass, Weed, Reefer, Chronic, etc.) is made out of cannabis. Marijuana is known to contain 400 chemicals that are potently harmful and cause cancer two times faster than smoking 15 cigarettes a day! Marijuana can cause many forms of cancer including lung cancer, larynx cancer, liver cancer, breast cancer, throat cancer, mouth cancer, and many more disgusting avoidable cancers. There is also a theory spreading around saying that if women use Marijuana or any drug, they could grow full beards while men could grow breasts! Geez, now how gross is that, FREEDO? Marijuana plain old kills but a few US states like Washington State made Marijuana legal. They aren't going to be heavily populated for long!

On the other hands, Cocaine is thought to be the most powerful drug out there! It can cause hallucinations in an instant!!!!! They can also increase your risk of cardiac arrest (AKA: The 7-minute heart attack) by twenty times! Yes, Cocaine used to be on Coca-Cola before but the government banned Coke from Coca-Cola! Just stay away from that drug!

Smoking, that is a whole different story! Tobacco comes from a tobacco plant! A single cigarette contains 200 known cancer-causing chemicals like nicotine, tar, lead, methane (cow fart gas), and 196 more! Smoking is the most common cause of that incureable disease called Lung Cancer! Smoking also smell like smoke and can in fact put you in poverty!

Long Story Short, just don't take drugs for your family, your friends, and yourself! You don't like it when someone in your family is dead or in poverty, huh? Just make the United States of America drug and tobacco free!

Greetings, my absolutely genuine friend who is no way a troll. A pleasure to be debating with you. I have reasons for not debating much recently but to hell with it, this seems like fun.

If you a spectator of this debate and only came here for arguments on the health effects of the specific drugs suggested by my opponent, you can skip to "Arguments III".

If you are a specter of this debate and here to vote on the debate, please read it in it's entirety.

If you are none of these, please press "2" for more options.

Clarification

The resolution is "Drugs" and is this somewhat ambiguous. Further complicating things, The instigator created no guidelines for the debate. So I, the contender, am left to interpret the introduction.

The instigator is Con to "Drugs" and I am Pro.

Among Con's opening statements are "Drugs are the worst things ever" and then goes on to make health related arguments to specific drugs. From this, we can reasonably infer that the resolution is along the lines of "Humans should not use drugs" or "Drugs are harmful to humans". Since "should" is an abstraction created by myself, I will not use any moral arguments. We will assume that harmfulness equates to "you should not use it".

Definition

Drug-Noun"A substance that has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body, in particular."[1]

This is the literal definition of drugs. However, Con only acknowledged drugs typically used for recreational use in his post. From this, we can infer that Con may have meant something else, particularly in cultural context, but was just too dumb to clarify.

This is of no consequence to me.

However, I feel like presenting both sides anyway. That is to say, "semantical" or, more properly, "literal" arguments, as well as arguments geared toward the perceived intention. This is in-spite of my debating experience which suggests that the former is already enough.

Arguments I

A1: Drugs are crucial to the functioning of any biological system, particularly humans and the human brain.

The process by which humans make decisions is regulated by the transfer of neurotransmitters to a variety of receptors in the brain.

By definition, a neurotransmitter is a drug.

Such drugs are also used for all body functions other than those in the brain.

If an additional amount of these drugs were ingested, they would create a physiological effect.

Sometimes, the body does not produce a certain drug but it's receptors will still react to it if it is introduced.

It is largely for this reason, combined with better nutrition, sanitation and working conditions, that lifespans have been dramatically increased during the modern age.

It can be reasonably said that drugs are the single most useful tool in human possession, as they concern our very selves. They improve health and decrease suffering more directly than anything else we posses.

[2,3,4,5,6,7,8]

Arguments II

A1: Non-sequitur 1

There can be no logical generalization, simply because a drug is used recreationally, that it will be harmful. In order to make such a statement, one would need to individually address every such drug and prove their point in each case.

A2: Non-sequitur 2

Likewise, there is no said logical generalization based a drug being illegal. Again, one would need to prove the point for every such drug.

This is just an extra point I am making and is not to be interpreted as a red-herring, as A3 also.

A3: Non-sequitur 3

Furthermore--in the event that such an argument be made--if Con were to be arguing for a generality of drugs as harmful, by whatever definition, rather than all-encompassing them; it could still not be logically inferred that, either by drugs being recreational, illegal or both, that they are more likely to be harmful. Con would need to argue for the specific reasons they were made illegal and prove them and/or, in the case of recreational use, tie a third factor between recreational use and harmfulness.

A4: Burden of proof and the unlikeliness of substantiation.

The burden of proof in any debate is proportional in this way:Makes a strong positive claim - "This is true" - 4Makes a weak positive claim - "This is possible" - 3Makes no claim - *crickets* - 0Makes a weak negative claim - "This is possible to be false" - 1Makes a strong negative claim - "This is false" - 2A higher number relates to a higher burden of proof.

In this debate, Con is making a strong positive claim by saying "It is true that all drugs are harmful".I am making a strong negative claim by saying "It is false that all drugs are harmful".

Therefore, even if I do not prove my case, I will still win by default if Con does not prove his case.

It may be irrelevant to say, but since:1. Con has the burden of proof.2. Seemingly sound arguments from every angle of the debate are presented by myself in the first round.3. Con offered no substantiated for the outrageous claims they have even made so far.4. It would require more character space than exists of sheer shoot and miss arguments of fact-bombing to have any hope of correcting these mistakes.It can be inferred that you would do good to place your bets on me. Simply putting things in perspective.

Arguments III

A1: Marijuana is one of, of not the, most medically beneficial substances known to humankind.

Here are some excerpts from my debate "Marijuana Cures Cancer", which I won against another experienced debater. I'll add more in later rounds because I'm running out of room. Marijuana has many other uses besides cancer reduction and prevention.

As said in an article by journalist Raymond Cushing, and as forwarded by The American Medical Marijuana Association, in 1974 researchers at the Medical College of Virginia, who were funded by the National Institute of Health, learned that THC shrank or destroyed brain tumors in test mice and the results were recently repeated by further research in 2000.

Marijuana components, including THC, have been found to inhibit the growth of the most common, and aggressive form of brain tumor, a glioblastoma, according to a study published in a 2010 issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, under the American Association for Cancer Research, which was repeated by Patients for Medical Cannabis.

According to a 2009 study recorded in The Journal for Clinical Investigation, cannabinoid action induces autophagy-mediated cell death through stimulation of ER stress in human glioma cells.

As reported by Science Daily and the Huffington Post, in 2009 Guillermo Velasco and colleagues, at Complutense University, Spain, have provided evidence that suggests that cannabinoids such as the main active component of marijuana (THC) have anticancer effects on human brain cancer cells.

Yeah, I have to admit, I saw that coming. But, undeterred, I continue with my evidence because I accepted this debate for the very purpose.

Arguments IV

A1: Safety of Marijuana

"There are no confirmed published cases worldwide of human deaths from cannabis poisoning, and the dose of THC required to produce 50% mortality in rodents is extremely high compared with other commonly used drugs"

[1]

A2: Marijuana for Pain Relief:

It's effectiveness as an analgesic, besides being obvious, have been studied by University of Oxford doctors who found that the human brain on THC showed reduced response to pain. Brain scans showed reduced activity in two centers of the brain where pain is registered, the mid-anterior cingulate cortex and the right amygdala. Although, the pain relief effects vary greatly. For some people, marijuana works to reduce pain to a degree that no other medications could. For some people, it didn't do much. This is because marijuana works much different to affect pain that other pain killers.

[2]

A3: Marijuana for Glaucoma

In studies of healthy adults and glaucoma patients, intra-ocular pressure was reduced by an average of 25% after smoking marijuana with 2% THC, a reduction as good as that observed with most other medications available today, according to a review by the Institute of Medicine.

[3]

A4: Marijuana for Multiple Sclerosis

A review of six randomized controlled trials of a combination of THC and CBD extracts for the treatment of multiple sclerosis related muscle spasticity reported, "Although there was variation in the outcome measures reported in these studies, a trend of reduced spasticity in treated patients was noted."

See video.

[4]

A5: Marijuana for Alzheimer's

Research done by the Scripps Research Institute in California shows that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, prevents the formation of deposits in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease. THC was found to prevent an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase from accelerating the formation of "Alzheimer plaques" in the brain more effectively than commercially marketed drugs. THC is also more effective at blocking clumps of protein that can inhibit memory and cognition in Alzheimerâ€™s patients, as reported in Molecular Pharmaceutics. Cannabinoids can also potentially prevent or slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease by reducing tau protein phosphorylation, oxidative stress, and neuroinflammation.

[5,6]

A6: Marijuana for Breast Cancer

According to a 2007 and a 2010 study at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, CBD stops breast cancer from spreading throughout the body by downregulating a gene called ID1. This provides a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy while achieving the same results without the painful and unpleasant side effects.

According to findings released by the team in 2012, when the particularly aggressive "triple-negative" cells (which contain high levels of ID1 and account for 15% of breast cancers) were exposed to CBD, they "not only stopped acting 'crazy' but also returned to a healthy normal state".

[7,8]

A7: Marijuana for HIV/AIDS

Although marijuana doesn't cure HIV/AIDS, it is very effective for treating it's side effects, as an appetite stimulant, anxiety relief and pain reducer.

Investigators at Columbia University published clinical trial data in 2007 showing that HIV/AIDS patients who inhaled cannabis four times daily experienced substantial increases in food intake with little evidence of discomfort and no impairment of cognitive performance. They concluded that smoked cannabis has a clear medical benefit in HIV-positive patients.

[9,10]

A8: Marijuana for Brain Cancer

A study by Complutense University of Madrid found the chemicals in cannabis promote the death of brain cancer cells by essentially helping them feed upon themselves in a process called autophagy. The research team discovered that cannabinoids such as THC had anticancer effects in mice with human brain cancer cells and in people with brain tumors. When mice with the human brain cancer cells received the THC, the tumor shrank. Using electron microscopes to analyze brain tissue taken both before and after a 26-to 30-day THC treatment regimen, the researchers found that THC eliminated cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact.

[11]

A9: Marijuana for Addictions

Injections of THC eliminate dependence on opiates in stressed rats, according to a research team at the Laboratory for Physiopathology of Diseases of the Central Nervous System (France) in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. Deprived of their mothers at birth, rats become hypersensitive to the rewarding effect of morphine and heroin (substances belonging to the opiate family), and rapidly become dependent. When these rats were administered THC, they no longer developed typical morphine-dependent behavior. In the striatum, a region of the brain involved in drug dependence, the production of endogenous enkephalins was restored under THC, whereas it diminished in rats stressed from birth which had not received THC.

A survey compiling self-reported addiction treatment and relapse rates among substance users found that respondents used cannabis to curb their alcohol cravings, as an alternative to previous use of prescription drugs, and even as a substitute for more potent drugs such as cocaine.

Among the published results of the study was said:Fifty three percent of the sample currently drinks alcohol, 2.6 was the average number of drinking days per week, 2.9 was the average number of drinks on a drinking occasion. One quarter currently uses tobacco, 9.5 is the average number of cigarettes smoked daily. Eleven percent have used a non-prescribed, non OTC drug in the past 30 days with cocaine, MDMA and Vicodin reported most frequently. Twenty five percent reported growing up in an abusive or addictive household. Sixteen percent reported previous alcohol and/or drug treatment, and 2% are currently in a 12-step or other recovery program. Forty percent have used cannabis as a substitute for alcohol, 26% as a substitute for illicit drugs and 66% as a substitute for prescription drugs. The most common reasons given for substituting were: less adverse side effects (65%), better symptom management (57%), and less withdrawal potential (34%) with cannabis.

[12,13]

A10: Marijuana for Depression

Results from animal studies, anecdotal experience reported by patients using cannabis and observations from clinical studies where cannabinoids were used in serious diseases suggest an anti-depressive potential of cannabinoid receptor agonists. From 2003 to 2006, 75 patients suffering from depression, stress and burnout syndrome were successfully treated in a practice for general medicine with the cannabis ingredient dronabinol.

[14,15]

A11: Marijuana for Insomnia

Insomnia, or chronic sleeplessness, is effectively treated with marijuana.

[16]

A12: Marijuana for Arthritis

Marijuana is effective for treatment of Arthritis due to it's pain reducing and anti-inflammatory qualities.

[17]

A13: Marijuana for PTSD

Marijuana is effective for treating PTSD.

The scientist who discovered THC notes:

"an animal which has been administered an electric shock after a certain noise will eventually forget about the shock after the noise appears alone for a few days. Mice without cannabinoid systems simply never forget - they continue to cringe at the noise indefinitely."

It seems that cannabinoid systems are an essential part of the brain's ability to move past traumatic memories.

Ugh, feeling so lazy on this round. I only have a few minutes left to post.

Arguments V

A1: Ketamine for Depression

The Yale scientists found that, in rats, ketamine not only quickly improves depression-like behaviors but actually restores connections between brain cells damaged by chronic stress. It visibly rewired their brains, healing synapses and rapidly creating new connections.

Almost 70 percent of patients who are resistant to treatment with all other forms of antidepressants were found to improve within hours after receiving ketamine.

[1,2]

A2: Psilosybin for Depression

Neuroscientist Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University and his colleagues tested the effects of psilocybin. Ages from 24 to 64, 14 men and 22 women.

In follow-up interviews conducted two months later 67 percent of the volunteers rated the psilocybin experience as among the most meaningful of their lives, comparing it to the birth of a first child or the death of a parent, and 79 percent reported that it had moderately or greatly increased their overall sense of well-being or life satisfaction.

The effects of psilosybin on the brain include temporarily disabling the structures of the brain responsible for the perception of self. This experience is so unimaginable that many users report it being a life changing experience. More than a year after the experience, they report being happy and more at peace with their lives directly because of it. That's something that can't even be claimed by winners of the lottery.

[3,4]

A3: LSD for.....

Yeah, you know what. It turns out pretty much all psychedelics cure depression. And addiction too. I was gonna get to that. The only risk they seem to show is people injuring themselves while trippin. Having a "sitter" is always suggested.

I used to smoke 2-3 jays a day ( Lol rhyming time ) and look where I am now. A semi-successful , engaged, guy who drives a kind-of-nice 72' mustang. Nothing is spectacular in my life but I am pretty happy. #GodMadeMarijuana #dohashtagsworkonDDO #prollynot